A recursive remove directory function for PHP?

I am using PHP to move the contents of a images subfolder

GalleryName/images/

into another folder. After the move, I need to delete the GalleryName directory and everything else inside it.

I know that rmdir() won't work unless the directory is empty. I've spent a while trying to build a recursive function to scandir() starting from the top and then unlink() if it's a file and scandir() if it's a directory, then rmdir() each empty directory as I go.

So far it's not working exactly right, and I began to think -- isn't this a ridiculously simple function that PHP should be able to do? Removing a directory?

So is there something I'm missing? Or is there at least a proven function that people use for this action?

Any help would be appreciated.

PS I trust you all here more than the comments on the php.net site -- there are hundreds of functions there but I am interested to hear if any of you here recommend one over others.

What about this?

function rmdir_recursive($dirPath){
    if(!empty($dirPath) && is_dir($dirPath) ){
        $dirObj= new RecursiveDirectoryIterator($dirPath, RecursiveDirectoryIterator::SKIP_DOTS); //upper dirs not included,otherwise DISASTER HAPPENS :)
        $files = new RecursiveIteratorIterator($dirObj, RecursiveIteratorIterator::CHILD_FIRST);
        foreach ($files as $path) 
            $path->isDir() && !$path->isLink() ? rmdir($path->getPathname()) : unlink($path->getPathname());
        rmdir($dirPath);
        return true;
    }
    return false;
}

This is the recursive function I've created/modifed and that finally seems to be working. Hopefully there isn't anything too dangerous in it.

function destroy_dir($dir) { 
    if (!is_dir($dir) || is_link($dir)) return unlink($dir); 
    foreach (scandir($dir) as $file) { 
        if ($file == '.' || $file == '..') continue; 
        if (!destroy_dir($dir . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $file)) { 
            chmod($dir . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $file, 0777); 
            if (!destroy_dir($dir . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $file)) return false; 
        }; 
    } 
    return rmdir($dir); 
} 

If the server of application runs linux, just use the shell_exec() function, and provide it the rm -R command, like this:

    $realPath = realpath($dir_path);

    if($realPath === FALSE){
         throw new \Exception('Directory does not exist');
    }

    shell_exec("rm ". escapeshellarg($realPath) ." -R");

Explanation:

Removes the specified directory recursively only if the path exists and escapes the path so that it can only be used as a shell argument to avoid shell command injection.

If you wouldnt use escapeshellarg one could execute commands by naming the directory to be removed after a command.